This particular call is hard. It further demonstrates the danger of only watching one fencer and looking for a mistake. If you only watch the fencer on the left (FotL), you will see that he begins moving forward first, never stops, never searches; so you might assume that makes this attack left.

But the crux of the issue is that FotL never STARTED until it was too late. The fencer on the right (FotR) opens the distance, turns around, and makes an advance while FotL is still preparing to attack. FotL reacts by trying to “finish his attack,” but in the end FotR makes his advance-lunge FIRST.

This is, essentially, Attack in Preparation done correctly. By opening the distance first, it allows FotR to establish clearly that they were ahead in the action. But, a lot can go wrong if you try this action at your club. It’s very easy to see this call as Attack Left. Many extremely good referees I showed this to initially called this Attack Left. Also, if FotL had given chase when FotR tried to open the distance, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the timing correct on trying to turn around and attack.